Category: American Art

I made two new paintings just for Halloween. I live in a senior apartment building that has a big arts & crafts room where I like to exhibit my paintings. When I can see them hanging up in a big room, it gives me a new perspective on them. Already have new ideas for the “table’ picture, or maybe just make a new picture.

(Update: my painting on my previous blog “City of Tomorrow 2” was stolen from hanging in the arts & crafts room. Don’t know why: because they like Trump or dislike Trump? Anyway will make a new one.)

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I consider most of my paintings decorative art. They brighten up and add interest to a room. At least they do that to my rooms. Not intended to give one a life-changing experience. Here are a few I’ve done lately.

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This kind of art is about all I’m doing right now. I have lots of paintings I need to finish, but keep putting them off. Terrible. Everything I paint, I keep seeing things I want to add to it or do differently. I have lots of ideas for paintings, but I no longer get ideas for writing anything longer than a Tweet.

Marker pen & acrylic on 12″ x 24″ canvas.

I hope to progress beyond these decorative kinds of paintings which can be classified as zentangles and/or optical art. They are so easy to do while watching TV. I love the English mysteries they have on PBS, like Grantchester, my very favorite right now. I’m 74 now and am starting to physically slow down. I figure that I can learn from doing these kinds of paintings and move on. I grow very fast.

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A few things I have done to contribute to the world of the Decorative Arts. Things like these help brighten up a room. Markers on 12″ x 12″ canvas. In this “Age of Trump,” a person needs an outlet to get their mind off of politics, at least for a few minutes.

Performance art became a big thing during these two decades, which is something I never really took to, probably because I didn’t understand it. Performance artists usually document their work with photographs, which many are on display at the Whitney. The lecture lasted about a 1/2 hour, then we went to the fifth floor to look at examples of work on display that had been talked about in the lecture. All by artists with whom I had been totally unfamiliar until last night. These lectures are free to members of the museum. It’s certainly worth the price of joining just for them.

These performance artists express some kind of social agenda, like Aids, or women issues. The women’s movement became big in the 70’s after the Vietnam war ended, and women performance artists dug their nails into it. Performance art is a much more in-your-face” type of thing than looking at a painting. However, when I think of the 80’s in art, the first people who come to my mind are Basquant and Warhol. I don’t think any performance artist would come to any one’s mind.

This photo of the Whitney shows the top 5 floors and the people standing out on the balconies. The views of the city from the balconies are tremendous. On the 8th floor is a restaurant where you can take your cocktail out on the balcony. Bring money. Multi-colored plastic chairs on the 5th floor balcony help enjoy the view. Also there’s a ground-floor restaurant that you can sit at without paying to get into the museum.

The 5th floor of the museum has two wonderful wall-to-wall windows on each side. One faces south and the Hudson River, and the other East. The windows have long couches in front of them for people to sit and contemplate and take photos if they want, which is what I wanted.

This is the view from the South window on the 5th Floor of the Museum. That’s the Hudson River with Jersey City in the background. It was about 7:00 p.m. when I took this.

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